Latinx Criminal Justice Professionals: Exploring Career Motivations through Historical Research

• In Event: Historical Perspectives on Crime, Culture, and Ethnicity

Abstract

There is a growing literature on why Latinx individuals choose criminal justice professions. Much of this literature focuses on males in law enforcement careers. This study is part of the ongoing Community Engaged Learning Construyendo Latinidad (Constructing Latinx Identity) in the Intermountain West oral history project. The project is a collaboration with Ethnic Studies upper-division seminar students, and the University of Utah Marriott Library. Seven oral history narrators with careers in law enforcement, as well as, careers as criminal justice/criminology researchers/professors were selected from the archive. Of these seven narrators, three identified as Latino, three as Latina, and one as non-binary. There were varied motivations for choosing a criminal justice/criminology career, ranging from a good job and benefits, to randomly falling into the career based on lived experiences and educational opportunities. Even so, the importance of giving back to the community arose as a prime motivation for “making it a career.” Implications of the study demonstrate the value that archival research and oral histories can provide for criminological and criminal justice research.

Authors

• Natalia Lopez, University of Utah

• Ed A. Muñoz, University of Utah